Determining whether to destage write data in cache to storage based on whether the write data has malicious data

ABSTRACT

Provided are a computer program product, system, and method for determining whether to destage write data in cache to storage based on whether the write data has malicious data. Write data for a storage is cached in a cache. A determination is made as to whether the write data in the cache comprises random data according to a randomness criteria. The write data in the cache to the storage in response to determining that the write data does not comprise random data according to the randomness criteria. The write data is processed as malicious data after determining that the write data comprises random data according to the randomness criteria.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a computer program product, system, and method for determining whether to destage write data in cache to storage based on whether the write data has malicious data.

2. Description of the Related Art

Anti-malware software, also known as anti-virus software, is used to detect, prevent and remove malicious software, such as malicious browser helper objects (BHOs), browser hijackers, ransomware, key loggers, backdoors, rootkits, Trojan horses, worms, malicious LSPs, dialers, fraud tools, adware and spyware. Typically when there is a possible data breach from malicious software, access to the data subject to the breach is blocked until the security threat is resolved, so as to avoid any alteration of data by the suspicious software. One type of malicious software known as ransomware encrypts user data, and then the operator of the ransomware blackmails the victim of the attack requiring payment for the encryption key to use to decrypt their data.

There is a need in the art for improved techniques for detecting suspicious processes potentially having malware so that such processes can then be managed to prevent malevolent activity and compromising data.

SUMMARY

Provided are a computer program product, system, and method for determining whether to destage write data in cache to storage based on whether the write data has malicious data. Write data for a storage is cached in a cache. A determination is made as to whether the write data in the cache comprises random data according to a randomness criteria. The write data in the cache to the storage in response to determining that the write data does not comprise random data according to the randomness criteria. The write data is processed as malicious data after determining that the write data comprises random data according to the randomness criteria.

With ransomware, user data is encrypted by a malicious process and then the encrypted data is written back to the user storage. The user is then blackmailed for the encryption key needed to decrypt their data. Described embodiments seek to prevent data encrypted by ransomware from being written to the storage. With described embodiments, a determination is made whether data is random, because encrypted data typically comprises random data. In such case, upon determining write data in cache comprises random data, the write data is processed as malicious data. If the write data in the cache is not random data, then the write data may be written to the storage because it would not be encrypted by ransomware if not random.

In a further embodiment, the randomness criteria comprises a compression ratio and determining whether the write data in the cache comprises random data comprises compressing the write data to produce compressed write data. A determination is made as to whether the compressed write data exceeds the compression ratio. The write data is determined to comprise random data in response to determining that the compressed write data does not exceed the compression ratio. The write data is determined to not comprise random data in response to determining that the compressed write data exceeds the compression ratio.

In the above embodiment, the determination of whether the data is random data and thus potentially ransomware is determined by compressing the data and determining whether the data actually compressed. Random data does not compress. Thus, a determination that the write data did not compress would determine that the write data comprises encrypted data, and thus potentially comprise ransomware.

In a further embodiment, when adding the write data to the cache, indication is made that the write data has not been scanned. The write data is later indicated as scanned in response to determining whether the write data in the cache comprises random data according to the randomness criteria.

In the above embodiment, by indicating the data as not scanned, the data will remain in cache and not be written to storage. Only after the data is scanned and confirmed as not random, and potentially encrypted by ransomware, may the data then be destaged as part of a normal destaging operation.

In a further embodiment, write data in the cache is accessed from a plurality of instances of write data in the cache to determine whether to destage the write data to the storage. A determination is made as to whether the accessed write data was scanned. The write data for the accessed cache entry is destaged in response to determining that the write data was scanned and that the write data does not comprise random data.

With the above embodiment, data is not destaged until the write data is confirmed as scanned and random or not. In this way, the write data may be processed according to regular destaging operations, but not destaged if not yet scanned. Alternatively, the write data may be immediately scanned upon being placed in cache.

In a further embodiment, a determination is made as to whether the write data is from a suspicious process. The determining whether the write data comprises random data is performed in response to determining that the write data is from a suspicious process. The write data is destaged from the cache to the storage in response to determining that the write data is not from a suspicious process.

With the above embodiment, only random data from a suspicious process is not destaged, whereas random write data from a process that is not suspicious may be destaged. This embodiment allows for random or encrypted data from a process that is not suspicious so as not to interfere with valid processes, and assumes a suspicious process writing random data comprises ransomware encrypting customer data. Further, with described embodiments a suspicious process writing data that is not random may be allowed to continue because the suspicious process is not encrypting data and not likely ransomware, and because the suspicious process may in fact be legitimate, it may be allowed to continue because it is not encrypting the data for ransomware purposes.

In a further embodiment, the write data is determined to be from a suspicious process in response to determining at least one of: (1) that the I/O activity rate of the process that wrote the write data exceeds a historical I/O activity rate by a I/O activity rate threshold, (2) that a difference of a timestamp of the write data and the timestamp of when a data entity including the address of the write data in the storage was last written exceeds a time threshold, and (3) that write data is directed to trap data.

With the above embodiment, the determiners of whether a process is suspicious may consider whether the process is engaging in an unusual amount of I/O activity, which is common for a malicious process, especially ransomware, that is trying to encrypt the entire user storage space. Another factor may be whether the process is accessing data that has not been accessed in a substantial amount of time, because malicious processes tend to access all areas of the disk, including data areas that have not been accessed in a long time. Further, a process accessing trap data that no other legitimate process would be programmed to access is further indicative of a suspicious process. These determiners may be considered separately or together before determining a process is suspicious.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment of a computing environment.

FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment of an Input/Output (I/O) activity sample.

FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment of historical I/O activity information.

FIG. 4 illustrates an embodiment of data entity access information.

FIG. 5 illustrates an embodiment of a cache entry of data in the cache.

FIG. 6 illustrates an embodiment of operations to cache data.

FIG. 7 illustrates an embodiment of operations to scan for random data in the cache.

FIG. 8 illustrates an embodiment of operations to destage data.

FIG. 9 illustrates an embodiment of operation to determine whether write data in cache is from a suspicious process.

FIG. 10 illustrates a computing environment in which the components of FIG. 1 may be implemented

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Anti-malware software identifies security threats and potential malicious processes, and then may block access to data subject to the security threat until the security threat is resolved. Described embodiments provide techniques to determine whether write data to a storage being stored in cache comprises random data, which is an indicator that the write data is encrypted data by ransomware to replace user data with the user data encrypted by the ransomware. A further determination may be made as to whether the write data in the cache is from a suspicious process, such that write data from a suspicious process determined to comprise random data would not be destaged from the cache to the storage under the assumption the suspicious process comprises ransomware encrypting the data.

FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment of a computing environment. A plurality of hosts 102 ₁, 102 ₂ . . . 102 _(n) may submit Input/Output (I/O) requests to a storage controller 104 over a network 106 to access data entities 108 (e.g., Volumes, Logical Unit Numbers, Logical Devices, Logical Subsystems, data sets, extents of data, data objects, databases, etc.) in a storage 110. The storage controller 104 includes one or more processors 112 and a memory 114, including a cache 116 to cache data for the storage 110. The processor 112 may comprise a separate central processing unit (CPU), one or a group of multiple cores on a single CPU, or a group of processing resources on one or more CPUs. The cache 116 buffers data transferred between the hosts 102 ₁, 102 ₂ . . . 102 _(n) and data entities 108 in the storage 110.

The memory 114 includes a storage manager 118 to manage the transfer of tracks between the hosts 102 ₁, 102 ₂ . . . 102 _(n) and the storage 110 and a cache manager 120 that manages data transferred between the hosts 102 ₁, 102 ₂ . . . 102 _(n) and the storage 110 in the cache 116. A data entity 108 may comprise any unit of data configured in the storage 110, such as a track, Logical Block Address (LBA), storage cell, group of cells (e.g., column, row or array of cells), sector, segment, etc., which may be part of a larger grouping of tracks, such as a volume, logical device, etc.

The memory 114 further includes a threat detector 124 to detect suspicious processes that potentially have malicious code, such as a virus, ransomware, etc., based on historical Input/Output (I/O) activity 300 and/or data entity access information 400. The historical I/O activity 300 is generated from I/O activity samples 200 comprising measurements of I/O activity toward the data entities 108 (e.g., a data set, volume, grouping of tracks or blocks, etc.) at different time periods, such as peak I/O rates at different time periods, e.g., a portion of a larger time period (e.g., a segment of a day). The threat detector 124 may further determine whether data in the cache 116 comprises random data, which indicates the data may comprise encrypted data from ransomware.

The I/O activity samples 200 are measured at different sample time periods of a lager time period. For instance, the sample time periods may comprise portions of a larger time period comprising a day, such as portions of a day, daytime versus nighttime. Alternatively, the sampled time periods may comprise days measured for a larger time period such as a week or month, or the sampled time periods can comprise minute segments of an hour, etc. The samples 200 provide data for the sampled time periods over multiple instances of the larger time periods.

The storage 110 may further include trap data 126 that valid users or the storage controller 104 would not access. If write data in the cache 116 is directed toward the trap data 126, such as specific storage 110 addresses having the trap data 126, then the process accessing such trap data 126 comprises a suspicious process potentially comprising malicious code, because valid users would not access the trap data 126. It may be assumed that ransomware or other malevolent would access the trap data 126 as part of operations to steal or encrypt all data in the storage 110.

The storage 110 may also include a quarantine location 130 to store write data deemed to comprise malevolent data, such as write data encrypted by ransomware. The write data stored in the quarantine location 130 may be inspected for further analysis and action.

The storage manager 118, cache manager 120, and threat detector 124 are shown in FIG. 1 as program code loaded into the memory 114 and executed by one or more of the processors 112. Alternatively, some or all of the functions may be implemented as microcode or firmware in hardware devices in the storage controller 104, such as in Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs).

The storage 110 may comprise one or more storage devices known in the art, such as a solid state storage device (SSD) comprised of solid state electronics, NAND storage cells, EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory), flash memory, flash disk, Random Access Memory (RAM) drive, storage-class memory (SCM), Phase Change Memory (PCM), resistive random access memory (RRAM), spin transfer torque memory (STM-RAM), conductive bridging RAM (CBRAM), magnetic hard disk drive, optical disk, tape, etc. The storage devices may further be configured into an array of devices, such as Just a Bunch of Disks (JBOD), Direct Access Storage Device (DASD), Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) array, virtualization device, etc. Further, the storage devices may comprise heterogeneous storage devices from different vendors or from the same vendor.

The memory 114 may comprise a suitable volatile or non-volatile memory devices, including those described above.

The network 106 may comprise a Storage Area Network (SAN), a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), the Internet, and Intranet, etc. Alternatively, the hosts 102 ₁, 102 ₂ . . . 102 _(n) may connect to the storage controller 104 over a bus interface, such as a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus interface and other interfaces known in the art.

FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment of an instance of an I/O activity sample 200 _(i) comprising a sample group identifier (ID) 202, such as an identifier of a larger time period during which the samples are measured, such as a specified day, week, month, etc.; a time period 204 for which the sample was measured, where there may be multiple time periods 204 within a larger sample group or larger time period, such as portions of a day within a day, days within a week, etc.; and a peak I/O rate 206 comprising the highest I/O rate that occurred during the time period 204, such as measured as a data transfer rate.

FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment of an instance of historical I/O activity 300 _(i) for a time period calculated from the I/O activity samples 200 _(i) for the time period, and includes a time period 302 of the larger period for which the I/O activity samples 200 are gathered; an average peak I/O rate 304 calculated during the time period 302 from the samples 200 _(i) for that time period 302; and a standard deviation 306 of the peak I/O rates in the I/O activity samples 200 _(i) for the time period 302. There may comprise different historical I/O activity, such as different average peak I/O rates 304 and standard deviations 306, for different time periods measured for the larger time period.

FIG. 4 illustrates an embodiment of an instance of data entity access information 400 _(i) for a specified data entity 402, such as a logical volume, data set, group of tracks or blocks, etc., and indicates a last read timestamp 404 indicating a time of a last read to the data entity 402 and a last write timestamp 406 indicating a time of a last write to the data entity 402.

FIG. 5 illustrates an embodiment of a cache entry 500, included in the cache 116, and includes a dirty flag 502 indicating whether the data comprises modified data; a scan flag 504 indicating whether the write data in the cache entry 500, has been scanned to determine whether the write data comprises encrypted data; a malicious flag 506 indicating whether the write data has been determined to comprise malicious data, which comprises data written by a suspicious process that is random data; a tag address 508 where the write data is stored in the storage 110; and the data 110 for the address 508.

FIG. 6 illustrates an embodiment of operations performed by the cache manager 120 to process received write data from one of the hosts 102 ₁, 102 ₂ . . . 102 _(n). Upon receiving (at block 600) the write data, the cache manager 120 creates (at block 602) a cache entry 500 _(i) for the write data indicating the entry is for dirty data in dirty flag 502, the data has not been scanned in the scan flag 504, and that the data does not comprise malicious data in the malicious flag 506. The tag address 508 and write data 510 are also included.

FIG. 7 illustrates an embodiment of operations performed by the threat detector 124 or other component, such as the cache manager 120, to determine whether write data in the cache 116 comprises malevolent data, such as encrypted data written by ransomware. A cache entry 500 _(i) in the cache is accessed (at block 702). If (at block 704) the cache entry 500 _(i) has been scanned, as indicated in the scan flag 504, then if (at block 706) there are further cache entries to scan, then control proceeds back to block 702 to access a next cache entry 500 _(i+1). Else, if there are no further cache entries to scan, then control ends. If (at block 704) the cache entry 500 _(i) has not been scanned, then a determination is made (at block 708) as to whether the write data is from a suspicious process that potentially is comprised of malware. This may be determined by considering whether a characteristic of the write data satisfies a condition indicating the write data is from a suspicious process. The determining whether the write data is from a suspicious process based on a characteristic of the data and a condition associated therewith may comprise at least one of determining whether an I/O activity rate of the process that wrote the write data exceeds a historical I/O activity rate by an I/O activity rate threshold, determining whether a difference of a timestamp of the write data and a timestamp of when a data entity including the storage address to write was last accessed exceeds a time threshold, and determining whether the write data is directed to trap data 126.

If (at block 708) the write data is from a suspicious process, then the threat detector 124 determines whether the write data comprises random data by compressing (at block 710) the write data. If (at block 712) the compressed write data falls below a compression ratio, which indicates that the write data did not compress and is likely random data, which has the property of not compressing, then the write data is indicated (at block 714) as malicious, such as by setting the malicious flag 506 to indicate malicious data. At this point, the cache entry 500, having the malicious data may be moved to the quarantine location 130 or discarded. In the embodiment of FIG. 8, the cache entry 500, having the write data may be later processed and discarded during a destage operation. If (at block 712) the write data did compress (from the no branch of block 712) or is not from a suspicious process (from the no branch of block 708) or after indicating the data as malicious (from block 714), the cache entry 500 _(i) may be indicated (at block 716) as scanned, such as by setting the scan flag 504 to indicate scanned, and control proceeds to block 706 to determine whether to scan further cache entries.

In FIG. 7, the randomness criteria used to determine whether the write data comprises random data is to compress the write data and determine whether the write data experienced compression because encrypted data, which is random, would not compress beyond a minimum compression ratio. In alternative embodiments, different techniques may be used to determine whether the write data is random and possible encrypted.

With the embodiment of FIG. 7, write data in the cache 116 is scanned to determine if the process that generated the write data comprises a suspicious process, i.e., a process deemed likely to be malware, and whether the write data is random, indicating the write data comprises malicious data, such as data encrypted by ransomware. With the embodiment of FIG. 7, if the data was written by a process not deemed to be a suspicious process, then the write data will be written to the storage 110 even if the data is random or compressed, because the process that encrypted the data is likely valid and not suspicious. Thus, in certain embodiment, malicious data may only be indicated if both the write data was written by a suspicious process and comprises random data.

FIG. 7 describes a scan operation that periodically scans multiple cache entries in the cache 116. In an alternative embodiment, the write data may be immediately scanned when placed in cache 116 as part of the write processing. In this way, the scan operations at blocks 708, 710, 712, 714 in FIG. 7 may be performed when immediately adding the write data to cache 116 as part of processing the write request. In such embodiments, there may be no scan flag 504 because the write data is immediately scanned to determine whether the write data is random upon being added to cache 116.

FIG. 8 illustrates an embodiment of operations performed by the cache manager 120 or other component to destage write data 510 in cache entries 500, to the storage 110. Upon initiating (at block 800) a destage operation, the cache manager 120 accesses (at block 802) a cache entry 500 _(i) such as according to a lead recently used (LRU) algorithm. If (at block 804) the cache entry 500 _(i), has not been scanned, such as indicated in the scan flag 504 for the cache entry 500 _(i) then if (at block 806) there are further cache entries to destage, control proceeds to block 802 to access a next cache entry 500 _(i+1). Otherwise, if there are no further cache entries to destage, such as reaching the end of the LRU list, then control ends.

If (at block 804) the cache entry 500, has been scanned, such as indicated in the scan flag 504, then the cache manager 120 determines (at block 808) whether the cache entry 500 _(i) has malicious data, such as indicated in the malicious flag 506. If (at block 808) the cache entry 500 _(i) does not have malicious write data, then the write data for the cache entry 500 _(i) is destaged (at block 810) to the address 508 in the storage 110 and control proceeds to block 806 to determine whether to process another cache entry 500 _(i+1), in the cache 116. If (at block 808) the cache entry 500 _(i) does have malicious data, then the cache manager 120 may call the threat detector 124 to process (at block 812) the write data as malicious data, such as ransomware, and discard and/or move the cache entry 500 _(i) to the quarantine location 130. If (at block 808) the cache entry 500 _(i) does not have malicious data, as indicated in malicious flag 506, then the cache manager 120 destages (at block 810) the write data 510 in the cache entry 500 _(i). After processing the cache entry 500, control proceeds to block 806 to determine whether there are further cache entries 500 _(i+1) to process, such as according to an LRU list.

With the embodiment of FIG. 8, cache entries that have not been scanned to determine whether the write data could be from ransomware or other malware, as indicated by the scan flag 504, remain in the cache 116, and only cache entries that have been scanned and not determined to comprise random data are destaged to storage 110. Cache entries 500 _(i) having write data 510 determined to potentially comprise malware are discarded from the cache 116 and may be moved to a quarantine location 130.

FIG. 9 illustrates an embodiment of operations performed by the threat detector 124 to perform the operation at block 708 in FIG. 7 to determine whether the write data is from a suspicious process. Upon initiating (at block 900) the operation to determine whether the write data is from a suspicious process, the threat detector 124 may perform (at block 902) any of the test 1, test 2 and/or test 3 from blocks 904, 910, and 914 respectively, which make a determination of a suspicious process based on different characteristics of the write data and whether the characteristic satisfies a condition indicating a suspicious process. The three tests may be performed in any number and one or any number may be performed. Further, tests for suspicious process in addition to those shown in FIG. 9 may also be performed. In the embodiment of FIG. 9, a suspicious process is determined if all of the applied tests indicate the write data is from a suspicious process. If less than all the applied tests indicate the write data is from a suspicious process, then the process is not deemed suspicious. In an alternative embodiment, the write data may be determined to be from a suspicious process if only one of the applied tests or conditions for the different considered data characteristics indicates the write data is from a suspicious process.

Test 1 considers as the characteristics of the data an I/O activity rate of a process that wrote the data as compared to a historical I/O activity 300 for a time period 302 during which the write data was received. Under this test, a process is deemed suspicious if the process I/O activity exceeds historical I/O activity by a threshold. Such a test is based on the empirical observation that malicious code tends to perform a much larger amount of accesses of data, such as ransomware trying to encrypt all the data sets in a volume or a virus trying to corrupt or steal large amounts of data.

For test 1, the threat detector 124 determines (at block 904) an I/O activity rate of a process that wrote the write data, where the I/O rate may comprise a transfer rate of accessing data, e.g., read or written, for a unit of time, e.g., megabytes or gigabytes per second. A determination is made (at block 906) of a historical I/O activity rate. In one embodiment, the historical I/O activity rate may comprise an average peak I/O rate 304 for a time period 302 during which the write data was provided from the historical I/O activity instance 300 _(i) for the determined time period. An I/O rate threshold or condition may comprise a standard deviation 306 for the determined peak I/O from peak I/O rates 206 measured during samples 200 _(i) of the time period. If (at block 908) the process I/O activity rate of the process that wrote the write data does not exceed the determined historical I/O activity rate by a threshold, such as a predetermined number of standard deviations 306, then the process is not considered suspicious, i.e., the condition for suspicious activity is not satisfied and control proceeds to block 920. If (at block 908) the process I/O rate exceeds the determined peak I/O rate 304 by a threshold, such as a predetermined number of the determined standard deviation 306 for the average peak I/O rate 304 for the determined time period 302, then control proceeds to block 916 to determine whether there is a further characteristic and condition to consider.

Test 2 considers a last time a data entity 402, e.g., data set, group of tracks, etc., including the storage address to which the write data is directed was last accessed, such as a last write timestamp 406. A process is deemed suspicious if the write data is directed to a data entity 402 including the storage address that has not been accessed in a threshold time. This classification as suspicious is based on the empirical observation that malicious code tends to access all data, including data that has not been accessed in a long time, than non-malevolent processes. The threat detector 124 performs test 2 by determining (at block 910) a timestamp of when the data entity including the storage address for the write data was last accessed. If (at block 912) a difference of a timestamp of the write data and a timestamp of last access of the data entity including the storage address of the write data exceeds a time threshold, such as a write threshold, then control proceeds to block 916 to determine whether there is a further characteristic and condition to consider. Otherwise, if (at block 912) the difference of when the data entity including storage address was last written does not exceed a threshold, i.e., is not too long, then control ends (at block 920) without the process writing the write being designated a suspicious process.

Test 3 considers whether the write data is directed to trap data 126, comprising data in the storage 110 that is not accessed by valid users and would only likely be accessed by a malevolent process such as ransomware that tries to access all data in the storage 110. The threat detector 124 performs test 3 by determining (at block 914) whether the write data is directed to trap data 126. If so, then the process that wrote the write data is deemed a suspicious process, and if the write data is not directed to trap data 126, then the process writing the write data is not considered suspicious.

The threat detector 124 determines (at block 916) whether a further data characteristic is to be considered after determining that the process comprises a suspicious process after one of the tests (from the yes branch of block 908, from the yes branch of block 912 or from the yes branch of block 914). If a further data characteristic is to be considered, then control proceeds to block 902 to perform a test not yet performed. Otherwise, if all data characteristics have been considered and all the data characteristics satisfy a condition indicating the process writing the write data is suspicious, then the threat detector 124 returns (at block 918) a result, such as at block 708 in FIG. 7, that the at least one characteristic satisfies the at least one condition, indicating the write data is from a suspicious process.

If for any of the tests, a determination was made that based on the considered data characteristic the process that wrote the write data is not suspicious (from the no branch of block 908, the no branch of block 912 or the no branch of block 914), then the threat detector 124 returns (at block 920) a result, such as at block 708 in FIG. 7, that the at least one characteristic does not satisfy the at least one condition, indicating the write data is not suspicious.

The present invention may be a system, a method, and/or a computer program product. The computer program product may include a computer readable storage medium (or media) having computer readable program instructions thereon for causing a processor to carry out aspects of the present invention.

The computer readable storage medium can be a tangible device that can retain and store instructions for use by an instruction execution device. The computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but is not limited to, an electronic storage device, a magnetic storage device, an optical storage device, an electromagnetic storage device, a semiconductor storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. A non-exhaustive list of more specific examples of the computer readable storage medium includes the following: a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), a static random access memory (SRAM), a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), a digital versatile disk (DVD), a memory stick, a floppy disk, a mechanically encoded device such as punch-cards or raised structures in a groove having instructions recorded thereon, and any suitable combination of the foregoing. A computer readable storage medium, as used herein, is not to be construed as being transitory signals per se, such as radio waves or other freely propagating electromagnetic waves, electromagnetic waves propagating through a waveguide or other transmission media (e.g., light pulses passing through a fiber-optic cable), or electrical signals transmitted through a wire.

Computer readable program instructions described herein can be downloaded to respective computing/processing devices from a computer readable storage medium or to an external computer or external storage device via a network, for example, the Internet, a local area network, a wide area network and/or a wireless network. The network may comprise copper transmission cables, optical transmission fibers, wireless transmission, routers, firewalls, switches, gateway computers and/or edge servers. A network adapter card or network interface in each computing/processing device receives computer readable program instructions from the network and forwards the computer readable program instructions for storage in a computer readable storage medium within the respective computing/processing device.

Computer readable program instructions for carrying out operations of the present invention may be assembler instructions, instruction-set-architecture (ISA) instructions, machine instructions, machine dependent instructions, microcode, firmware instructions, state-setting data, or either source code or object code written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like, and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C” programming language or similar programming languages. The computer readable program instructions may execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider). In some embodiments, electronic circuitry including, for example, programmable logic circuitry, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), or programmable logic arrays (PLA) may execute the computer readable program instructions by utilizing state information of the computer readable program instructions to personalize the electronic circuitry, in order to perform aspects of the present invention.

Aspects of the present invention are described herein with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer readable program instructions.

These computer readable program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks. These computer readable program instructions may also be stored in a computer readable storage medium that can direct a computer, a programmable data processing apparatus, and/or other devices to function in a particular manner, such that the computer readable storage medium having instructions stored therein comprises an article of manufacture including instructions which implement aspects of the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

The computer readable program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other device to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer, other programmable apparatus or other device to produce a computer implemented process, such that the instructions which execute on the computer, other programmable apparatus, or other device implement the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate the architecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementations of systems, methods, and computer program products according to various embodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in the flowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portion of instructions, which comprises one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified logical function(s). In some alternative implementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specified functions or acts or carry out combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions.

The computational components of FIG. 1, including the hosts 102 ₁, 102 ₂ . . . 102 _(n) and storage controller 104, may be implemented in one or more computer systems, such as the computer system 1002 shown in FIG. 10. Computer system/server 1002 may be described in the general context of computer system executable instructions, such as program modules, being executed by a computer system. Generally, program modules may include routines, programs, objects, components, logic, data structures, and so on that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Computer system/server 1002 may be practiced in distributed cloud computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed cloud computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote computer system storage media including memory storage devices.

As shown in FIG. 10, the computer system/server 1002 is shown in the form of a general-purpose computing device. The components of computer system/server 1002 may include, but are not limited to, one or more processors or processing units 1004, a system memory 1006, and a bus 1008 that couples various system components including system memory 1006 to processor 1004. Bus 1008 represents one or more of any of several types of bus structures, including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, an accelerated graphics port, and a processor or local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. By way of example, and not limitation, such architectures include Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus, Enhanced ISA (EISA) bus, Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) local bus, and Peripheral Component Interconnects (PCI) bus.

Computer system/server 1002 typically includes a variety of computer system readable media. Such media may be any available media that is accessible by computer system/server 1002, and it includes both volatile and non-volatile media, removable and non-removable media.

System memory 1006 can include computer system readable media in the form of volatile memory, such as random access memory (RAM) 1010 and/or cache memory 1012. Computer system/server 1002 may further include other removable/non-removable, volatile/non-volatile computer system storage media. By way of example only, storage system 1013 can be provided for reading from and writing to a non-removable, non-volatile magnetic media (not shown and typically called a “hard drive”). Although not shown, a magnetic disk drive for reading from and writing to a removable, non-volatile magnetic disk (e.g., a “floppy disk”), and an optical disk drive for reading from or writing to a removable, non-volatile optical disk such as a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM or other optical media can be provided. In such instances, each can be connected to bus 1008 by one or more data media interfaces. As will be further depicted and described below, memory 1006 may include at least one program product having a set (e.g., at least one) of program modules that are configured to carry out the functions of embodiments of the invention.

Program/utility 1014, having a set (at least one) of program modules 1016, may be stored in memory 1006 by way of example, and not limitation, as well as an operating system, one or more application programs, other program modules, and program data. Each of the operating system, one or more application programs, other program modules, and program data or some combination thereof, may include an implementation of a networking environment. The components of the computer 1002 may be implemented as program modules 1016 which generally carry out the functions and/or methodologies of embodiments of the invention as described herein. The systems of FIG. 1 may be implemented in one or more computer systems 1002, where if they are implemented in multiple computer systems 1002, then the computer systems may communicate over a network.

Computer system/server 1002 may also communicate with one or more external devices 1018 such as a keyboard, a pointing device, a display 1020, etc.; one or more devices that enable a user to interact with computer system/server 1002; and/or any devices (e.g., network card, modem, etc.) that enable computer system/server 1002 to communicate with one or more other computing devices. Such communication can occur via Input/Output (I/O) interfaces 1022. Still yet, computer system/server 1002 can communicate with one or more networks such as a local area network (LAN), a general wide area network (WAN), and/or a public network (e.g., the Internet) via network adapter 1024. As depicted, network adapter 1024 communicates with the other components of computer system/server 1002 via bus 1008. It should be understood that although not shown, other hardware and/or software components could be used in conjunction with computer system/server 1002. Examples, include, but are not limited to: microcode, device drivers, redundant processing units, external disk drive arrays, RAID systems, tape drives, and data archival storage systems, etc.

The terms “an embodiment”, “embodiment”, “embodiments”, “the embodiment”, “the embodiments”, “one or more embodiments”, “some embodiments”, and “one embodiment” mean “one or more (but not all) embodiments of the present invention(s)” unless expressly specified otherwise.

The terms “including”, “comprising”, “having” and variations thereof mean “including but not limited to”, unless expressly specified otherwise.

The enumerated listing of items does not imply that any or all of the items are mutually exclusive, unless expressly specified otherwise.

The terms “a”, “an” and “the” mean “one or more”, unless expressly specified otherwise.

Devices that are in communication with each other need not be in continuous communication with each other, unless expressly specified otherwise. In addition, devices that are in communication with each other may communicate directly or indirectly through one or more intermediaries.

A description of an embodiment with several components in communication with each other does not imply that all such components are required. On the contrary a variety of optional components are described to illustrate the wide variety of possible embodiments of the present invention.

When a single device or article is described herein, it will be readily apparent that more than one device/article (whether or not they cooperate) may be used in place of a single device/article. Similarly, where more than one device or article is described herein (whether or not they cooperate), it will be readily apparent that a single device/article may be used in place of the more than one device or article or a different number of devices/articles may be used instead of the shown number of devices or programs. The functionality and/or the features of a device may be alternatively embodied by one or more other devices which are not explicitly described as having such functionality/features. Thus, other embodiments of the present invention need not include the device itself.

The foregoing description of various embodiments of the invention has been presented for the purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teaching. It is intended that the scope of the invention be limited not by this detailed description, but rather by the claims appended hereto. The above specification, examples and data provide a complete description of the manufacture and use of the composition of the invention. Since many embodiments of the invention can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, the invention resides in the claims herein after appended. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A non-transitory computer program product for processing data in a cache directed to a storage, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therein that when executed performs operations, the operations comprising: caching write data for the storage in the cache; determining a timestamp of when a data entity including an address in the storage for the write data was last accessed; determining that the write data is from a suspicious process in response to determining that a difference of a timestamp of the write data and the timestamp, when the data entity including the address in the storage for the write data was last accessed, exceeds a threshold; determining whether the write data in the cache comprises random data according to a randomness criteria in response to determining that the write data is from a suspicious process; destaging the write data in the cache to the storage in response to determining that the write data does not comprise random data according to the randomness criteria; destaging the write data from the cache to the storage in response to determining that the write data is not from a suspicious process; and processing the write data as malicious data after determining that the write data comprises random data according to the randomness criteria.
 2. A non-transitory computer program product of claim 1, wherein the processing the write data as malicious data comprises performing at least one of discarding the write data from the cache and copying the write data to a quarantine storage location for write data determined to be malevolent to be made available for further inspection.
 3. A non-transitory computer program product of claim 1, wherein the randomness criteria comprises a compression ratio, wherein determining whether the write data in the cache comprises random data comprises: compressing the write data to produce compressed write data; and determining whether the compressed write data exceeds the compression ratio, wherein the write data is determined to comprise random data in response to determining that the compressed write data does not exceed the compression ratio and wherein the write data is determined to not comprise random data in response to determining that the compressed write data exceeds the compression ratio.
 4. A non-transitory computer program product of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise: indicating when adding the write data to the cache that the write data has not been scanned; and indicating that the write data was scanned in response to determining whether the write data in the cache comprises random data according to the randomness criteria.
 5. A non-transitory computer program product of claim 4, wherein the operations further comprise: accessing write data in the cache from a plurality of instances of write data in the cache to determine whether to destage the write data to the storage; and determining whether the accessed write data was scanned, wherein the write data is destaged in response to determining that the write data was scanned and that the write data does not comprise random data.
 6. A non-transitory computer program product of claim 5, wherein the operations further comprise: indicating that the write data does not comprise random data when adding the write data to the cache; and indicating that the write data comprises random data in response to determining that the write data comprises random data, wherein the write data is destaged in response to determining that the write data was scanned and does not comprise random data, wherein the write data is processed as malicious data in response to determining that the write data was scanned and comprises random data.
 7. A non-transitory computer program product of claim 5, wherein the operations further comprise: initiating a scan operation to access write data in the cache to determine whether the write data comprises random data, wherein the scan operation is performed independently of a destage operation to determine whether to destage write data from the cache.
 8. A system for processing data directed to a storage, comprising: a processor; a cache; and a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code that when executed by the processor performs operations, the operations comprising: caching write data for the storage in the cache; determining a timestamp of when a data entity including an address in the storage for the write data was last accessed; determining that the write data is from a suspicious process in response to determining that a difference of a timestamp of the write data and the timestamp, when the data entity including the address in the storage for the write data was last accessed, exceeds a threshold; determining whether the write data in the cache comprises random data according to a randomness criteria in response to determining that the write data is from a suspicious process; destaging the write data in the cache to the storage in response to determining that the write data does not comprise random data according to the randomness criteria; destaging the write data from the cache to the storage in response to determining that the write data is not from a suspicious process; and processing the write data as malicious data after determining that the write data comprises random data according to the randomness criteria.
 9. The system of claim 8, wherein the randomness criteria comprises a compression ratio, wherein determining whether the write data in the cache comprises random data comprises: compressing the write data to produce compressed write data; and determining whether the compressed write data exceeds the compression ratio, wherein the write data is determined to comprise random data in response to determining that the compressed write data does not exceed the compression ratio and wherein the write data is determined to not comprise random data in response to determining that the compressed write data exceeds the compression ratio.
 10. The system of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise: indicating when adding the write data to the cache that the write data has not been scanned; and indicating that the write data was scanned in response to determining whether the write data in the cache comprises random data according to the randomness criteria.
 11. The system of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise: accessing write data in the cache from a plurality of instances of write data in the cache to determine whether to destage the write data to the storage; and determining whether the accessed write data was scanned, wherein the write data is destaged in response to determining that the write data was scanned and that the write data does not comprise random data.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise: indicating that the write data does not comprise random data when adding the write data to the cache; and indicating that the write data comprises random data in response to determining that the write data comprises random data, wherein the write data is destaged in response to determining that the write data was scanned and does not comprise random data, wherein the write data is processed as malicious data in response to determining that the write data was scanned and comprises random data.
 13. The system of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise: initiating a scan operation to access write data in the cache to determine whether the write data comprises random data, wherein the scan operation is performed independently of a destage operation to determine whether to destage write data from the cache.
 14. The system of claim 8, wherein the processing the write data as malicious data comprises performing at least one of discarding the write data from the cache and copying the write data to a quarantine storage location for write data determined to be malevolent to be made available for further inspection.
 15. A method for processing data in cache directed to a storage, comprising: caching write data for a storage in a cache; determining a timestamp of when a data entity including an address in the storage for the write data was last accessed; determining that the write data is from a suspicious process in response to determining that a difference of a timestamp of the write data and the timestamp, when the data entity including the address in the storage for the write data was last accessed, exceeds a threshold; determining whether the write data in the cache comprises random data according to a randomness criteria in response to determining that the write data is from a suspicious process; destaging the write data in the cache to the storage in response to determining that the write data does not comprise random data according to the randomness criteria; destaging the write data from the cache to the storage in response to determining that the write data is not from a suspicious process; and processing the write data as malicious data after determining that the write data comprises random data according to the randomness criteria.
 16. The method of claim 15, wherein the randomness criteria comprises a compression ratio, wherein determining whether the write data in the cache comprises random data comprises: compressing the write data to produce compressed write data; and determining whether the compressed write data exceeds the compression ratio, wherein the write data is determined to comprise random data in response to determining that the compressed write data does not exceed the compression ratio and wherein the write data is determined to not comprise random data in response to determining that the compressed write data exceeds the compression ratio.
 17. The method of claim 15, further comprising: indicating when adding the write data to the cache that the write data has not been scanned; and indicating that the write data was scanned in response to determining whether the write data in the cache comprises random data according to the randomness criteria.
 18. The method of claim 17, further comprising: accessing write data in the cache from a plurality of instances of write data in the cache to determine whether to destage the write data to the storage; and determining whether the accessed write data was scanned, wherein the write data is destaged in response to determining that the write data was scanned and that the write data does not comprise random data.
 19. The method of claim 18, further comprising: indicating that the write data does not comprise random data when adding the write data to the cache; and indicating that the write data comprises random data in response to determining that the write data comprises random data, wherein the write data is destaged in response to determining that the write data was scanned and does not comprise random data, wherein the write data is processed as malicious data in response to determining that the write data was scanned and comprises random data.
 20. The method of claim 18, further comprising: initiating a scan operation to access write data in the cache to determine whether the write data comprises random data, wherein the scan operation is performed independently of a destage operation to determine whether to destage write data from the cache.
 21. The method of claim 15, wherein the processing the write data as malicious data comprises performing at least one of discarding the write data from the cache and copying the write data to a quarantine storage location for write data determined to be malevolent to be made available for further inspection. 